Will getting rid of ACM free the refugees?

May 30, 2001
Issue 

@box text intr = The June 3 demonstrations to free the refugees will be the first nationally co-ordinated actions in support of refugees in Australia's history. It is a tragedy that they are necessary.

Australia offers no welcome haven to those fleeing persecution. Instead, upon arrival in Australia asylum seekers face more persecution. Imprisoned in remote areas, denied legal advice and often moved across the country with no explanation, refugees are vilified by immigration minister Philip Ruddock as bludgers and criminals.

The bi-partisan policy of compulsory detention is designed to isolate refugees from the rest of Australia's population. It is designed to prevent solidarity between Australia's working people and the world's destitute — those living in fear of persecution and in Third World poverty.

The geographical isolation of the refugees is an essential part of their political isolation. Far from being designed to weed out "criminals", compulsory detention is designed to intimidate all refugees, and allow the government to tell outrageous and racist lies without contradiction.

If the government was serious about refusing entry to criminals, Ruddock would never have approved the migration of members of the internationally condemned South Lebanese Army in April.

The horrific conditions in the camps further their overall purpose — to demoralise asylum seekers and demonise them to the rest of the community.

Every national inquiry into the camps has condemned the management style of Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), a subsidiary of one of the world's nastiest companies, Wackenhut Corporation.

Under ACM's management, the camps are run like prisons. "Problem" refugees are punished by being locked in solitary for weeks at a time, although they have not broken any laws. According to the commonwealth ombudsman's report into the centres, ACM staff routinely verbally abuse the refugees, and one guard was recently convicted of beating a restrained detainee.

The emergence of a refugee rights' movement, backed by damning reports into the centres, has begun to expose the real story within the camps and the role of ACM in particular.

In response to this pressure, Ruddock announced on May 25 that he would not automatically renew ACM's contract, but instead put the management of the centres up for public tender.

Although ACM will be able to bid for the tender, it is a significant victory for the refugees and their supporters. It is an acknowledgement that the government's scapegoating is not enough to stem the growing tide of public sympathy toward the refugees.

It also removes the only difference between the ALP and the Howard government on the refugee issue. Much to its shame, the ALP supports the policy of mandatory detention. Shadow immigration minister Con Sciacca has even called on Ruddock to be harsher with "troublemakers".

Whether the next government is Labor or Coalition, it will find it difficult to justify re-awarding the detention centre contract to a company with a proven track record of abuse. Getting ACM out of the centres will undoubtedly lead to some improvement in conditions for refugees.

But this should not be overestimated. Getting rid of ACM will not free the refugees. It will not fundamentally change a system designed to isolate and intimidate.

While the detention centres remain operational, the government will continue to demonise and abuse the refugees, in order to destroy any solidarity between them and other working people.

Our campaign must directly attack these barriers to solidarity. We must demand equal rights for all refugees in Australia, closure of the camps and redirection of the funding into resettlement programs.

This is the kind of politics that makes former Coalition PM Malcolm Fraser shudder. Fraser has been vocal in his condemnation of ACM's management, but stops short of demanding the closure of the centres, or full rights for refugees. Fraser also argues for private lobbying over public action.

But we should reject the view that a small section of the white elite will free the refugees. This can only be won by a united campaign that includes refugees in its leadership and mobilises support among the general Australian population. This is the sort of campaign which will actively build solidarity with the refugees and challenge ruling class attempts to divide us.

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